ThePoint

Friday, March 20, 2015

I had a good day Friday. I attended the memorial service for friend Fred Williams, a pillar of the community and the church, who was born in 1915, 100 years ago. The service was conducted by my wonderful pastor, Rev. Alan Sherouse, a 30-something, born in the 1980s. Alan nailed it, knocked it out of the park. It was a wonderful worship service, a celebration of a fascinating 20th century entrepreneurial journey underpinned by devote Christian faith. It was topped off for me by having lunch with another wonderful friend who was born in 1925, 90 years ago (I had taken him to the service).

The best part of the day was seeing my Uncle Warren Bass, Fred's best friend, born in 1921, 94 years ago. In my family (among his generation), and among most of his friends, Warren is the last man standing. He has been a rock of the family. Such an example. My day caused for such reflection, such introspection, such feelings of blessing and gratitude.

These guys grew up in difficult times, the Great Depression, World War Two, the beginnings of America's ascension. They did so well. They did what they had to do. To be around them, to listen to them, to observe their humility, is a such blessing. Due to 'father time', such experiences will be, at this point, short-lived. They are leaving us, literally, daily.

The friend I had lunch with, Ray Anderson, is a 1949 Georgia Tech graduate who grew up on a 25,000 acre plantation outside of Memphis. He married a New Orleans girl 65 years ago. He is a devote Christian, his son a pastor in Macon, he's an avid Braves and Georgia Tech fan, an industrial engineer by trade, overseer of the Triad Montenyard community for 40 years, an overall wonderful, interesting guy.

But then, there is Uncle Warren. The last man standing. In my family, there was, to say the least, maverick, interesting characters in that generation, all unique, leaving mark and impression on the world and on all of us.

But then, Warren, the last man standing. Thankfully, I'll see him and I'll visit with him Sunday, at the First Baptist Church of Greensboro.

If you have occasion to be around any pre-1925 born soul in the coming weeks, listen, observe, be grateful. It'll make your day.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Saturday, March 7, is the date for the 2015 Dixie Chapter Meeting and Show of the American Political Items Collectors (APIC). It will be held in Greensboro at the Holiday Inn Airport on Burnt Poplar Rd. (I-40 and Hwy. 68) There will be collectors and dealers in from all over the country. APIC is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of material relating to political campaigns.

The show is from 8:30 to 2:00 on Saturday, March 7 (Friday evening there will be room hopping and a hospitality suite; all are invited). Admission Saturday is $3.00. Above is some of my collection which will be on display.

Like many others, I will be set-up and will be showing, trading, buying, and selling. Please come out if you have interest. It is a blast. Bring any items you may wish to have appraised by the nation's top dealers at no charge.

Monday, August 11, 2014

As Americans, we have always been a people of different points of view. It is who we are. It goes back even to colonial times. Traditionally, over the years, through social interaction, by sitting down with people of opposing views, on a front porch, over a bale of hay, at a town meeting, in a bar, across a kitchen table, around a conference table, in a classroom, we resolved them, we worked through our differing positions together. In the past couple of decades, we have gotten away from that.

Today we hunker down, surround ourselves with like-minded people, read, watch, and listen to information and material which reinforces our views. We demonize the opposing position and the opposing people. In fact, often (research has shown) the more facts people are presented which oppose the validity of their position, the more adamant they get about their position.

Prior to this phenomenon, in prior decades, as we met with and sat down with people of different attitudes, values, opinions, beliefs, and positions, we grew stronger as a result, not more contentious. We built on one another's views. We arrived at consensus. We moved though differences. We built and moved communities forward as a result of the process. We resolved differences, came out stronger, wiser, more effective, with collective ideas and strategies.

Think about Illinois' Lincoln and Tennessee's Johnson (running mates in 1864), of social liberal FDR and business conservative Joe Kennedy working so effectively. Think of a competitive Bill Gates and Steve Jobs in a garage. Consider Illinois Republican Everett Dirksen and Texas Democrat Lyndon Johnson crafting civil rights legislation, a Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neil, Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, a George HW Bush and a Bill Clinton. Opposing ideologies and competitors, but common and collective vision and hope. Collaboration, cooperation, compromise, respect.

We stopped doing that. We are at each other's throats in the public square. Why? What happened to us? We best consider.

Saturday, July 12, 2014

What a complex, contradictory, egotistical, stubborn, paradoxical, courageous, brave, great 20th century military strategist and leader Douglas MacArthur was. I finished a great book, “The Most Dangerous Man in America - The Making of Douglas MacArthur.” I learned much about WWII and leadership. I learned much about his complicated relationship with President Roosevelt, who considered he and Huey Long the two most dangerous men in America, and how competitive relationships among military leaders can sometimes achieve great, high-level results.

I have a friend who values great, historic speeches and addresses. He carries them in his briefcase. The MacArthur speech I will end this blog with is short, but the setting is dramatic and the words are wise, honorable and visionary.

General Douglas MacArthur arrived, with his entourage, in Yokohama, Japan after word of the Japanese surrender. There was no assurance his arrival would not be met with gunfire. No surrender documents had been signed. He and his staff piled in a Japanese-organized motorcade for the twenty-mile trip into downtown Yokohama. MacArthur’s staff insisted he be accompanied by armed guards and vehicles. MacArthur waived it off. He wanted the Japanese to know that he was coming as their friend. Winston Churchill would later call this decision one of the bravest acts of World War II.

It took MacArthur two hours to travel through the rubble of Yokohama. On both sides of the road, Japanese soldiers and citizens turned their backs to him……a sign of respect accorded only to the emperor. As MacArthur assumed his position in his suite at The New Grand Hotel in Yokohama, five hundred troops of the 11th Airborne fanned out around the hotel for protection.

On the morning of Sunday, September 2, MacArthur drove from The New Grand Hotel to Yokohama Naval Base, where he was put aboard a launch for the USS Missouri which lay anchored in Tokyo Bay. He had spent the previous day mapping out the surrender ceremonies, including a diagram designating where each of his fellow commanders would stand. A short time after his arrival, a delegation of eleven Japanese officials, all dressed in formal attire, with top hats, arrived, led by the Foreign Minister Shigemitusu.

There was no cheering; the sailors of the Missouri, including 1st Shipmate Ervin A. Godfrey, a very proud uncle of mine from North Carolina, watched in silent awe. As MacArthur stepped to the microphone, he began:

“We are gathered here, representatives of the major warring powers, to conclude a solemn agreement whereby peace may be restored. The issues, involving divergent ideals and ideologies, have been determined on the battlefields of the world and hence are not for our discussion or debate.”

The Japanese watched him closely, with one of them later noting that his hands trembled, if only slightly. MacArthur, his voice steady, went on:

“It is my earnest hope and indeed the hope of all mankind, that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past…..a world founded upon faith and understanding…….a world dedicated to the dignity of man and the fulfilment of his most cherished wish…….for freedom, tolerance and justice.”

MacArthur had written the words himself, without help from his staff, and without reviewing them with anyone. He wanted to set a calm tone with simple sentences shorn of triumph. It was, without question, biographer Mark Perry believes, Douglas MacArthur's finest speech and his finest moment. After the signing of the surrender documents, MacArthur returned to the microphone:

“Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always. These proceedings are now closed.”

And with those words, World War Two ended.

(Source: Mark Perry’s, “The Most Dangerous Man In America - The Making of Douglas MacArthur.”)

Sunday, June 1, 2014

I ENJOY A GOOD CIGAR.HERE, PRESIDENT KENNEDY LIGHTS UP CIGAR - WITH HIS CLOSE FRIEND SENATOR GEORGE SMATHERS OF FLORIDA - IN THEIR BACHELOR DAYS JFK AND SMATHERS SHARED A TOWNHOUSE IN UPSCALE GEORGETOWN (WASHINGTON D.C.).IF YOU DO NOT KNOW THE STORY, AS TOLD BY PIERRE SALINGER, OF JFK 'S CUBAN EMBARGO DELAY DUE TO HIS LOVE OF CIGARS, CLICK HERE FOR A GREAT VIDEO AND STORY.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

"But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice:... "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God." And John Bunyan: "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." And Abraham Lincoln: "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." And Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal ..." So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime---the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists."--- Dr. Martin Luther King ("LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL" April 16, 1963).

Thursday, March 27, 2014

"I am slow to listen to criminations among friends, and never espouse their quarrels on either side. My sincere wish is that both sides will allow bygones to be bygones, and look to the present and future only.” Abraham Lincoln 8/31/1860Library of Congress image